Trump admin hits back at ex-California mayor's call for federal guaranteed income as cities hand out cash
The Trump administration punched back at the founder of the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income organization, saying that Democratic mayors should prioritize other issues within their city instead of issuing handouts, Fox News Digital was told.
"Americans don’t need handouts, but a dynamic economy with wage, job, and investment growth – which the Trump administration is unleashing with a proven economic agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and tariffs," White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital on Friday. "Democrat mayors should focus on cleaning up their city streets before embarrassing themselves with a stupid PR push."
The White House responded to the founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income organization, Michael D. Tubbs, a Democrat, telling Fox News Digital that the federal government should strive toward developing a policy that provides cash assistance with no-strings attached, following suit of mayors across the country.
"We have wars in Iran, regime change in Venezuela. We get it, the healthcare system and the big, ugly bill," he said. "So people are saying that social safety is being frayed."
"That wealth is further being taken from the many and given to the few, and there has to be a government solution because this is a government-caused problem… inflation, unaffordability, this is all a direct result of government policy," Tubbs told Fox News Digital.
Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of over 150 mayors, has pushed pilot programs that have been adopted by municipalities across the country. The group is responsible for more than 100 pilot programs launching since 2018. Most notably, Cook County, Ill., the second-largest county in the U.S., established a permanent guaranteed basic income program after the success of a previous pilot version. The program launched in 2022 with the aid of federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Tubbs, who served as mayor of Stockton, Calif., from 2017 to 2021, also founded the Counties for a Guaranteed Income and Legislators for a Guaranteed Income.
Mayors for a Guaranteed Income touted in February that more than 60 bills that would implement cash-based policies similar to guaranteed income have been floated in 15 states. Legislators for a Guaranteed Income reported more than 20 bills in 11 states being proposed to establish some form of statewide guaranteed income program.
Offering low-income participants up to $1,000 a month with no strings attached through guaranteed income programs, Tubbs said that the effort is needed while Americans struggle with the affordability crisis.
Rising costs of groceries, housing, and healthcare prompted the federal government to act. The House passed legislation — showing a rare display of bipartisanship last month with a 390-9 vote — to deliver policies aimed at growing the supply of affordable housing in the U.S.
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Responding to Desai's statement, Tubbs told Fox News Digital that the "reality is only billionaires have seen their lives get easier under the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress."
Tubbs added that unemployment is up and costs continue to rise.
"And over half of Americans cannot afford the bare basics needed to survive," he said.
He continued, "The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of Americans now believe the American Dream is out of reach for them. Making the rich richer does nothing to help the rest of us. Guaranteed income policies have been tested in 36 states and proven that providing an income floor for Americans unlocks opportunity and gives families the ability to truly thrive."
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The former mayor decried the dismantling of federal aid programs in a news release published last month after the Trump administration froze more than $10 billion in federal childcare and social services funding to five Democratic-led states. The concerns were that taxpayer dollars were improperly diverted to noncitizens.
While studies have shown that guaranteed income pilots have been beneficial, some programs face funding shortages and legal challenges.
President Donald Trump took a shot at Democrats over affordability issues in the country during his State of the Union address last month, saying they had brought about inflation and open borders.
"Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly use the word 'affordability,'" he said. "A word, they just used it. Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure. You caused that problem."